New here but glad I’ve found you all

[Mrsmaggie]

Hello , I have been having digestive problems for a couple of years now ...endoscopy was normal but despite taking meds the discomfort continued and so I asked to be referred to a gastroenterologist. Due to covid I have never met my consultant but have had telephone consultations with him .

He noticed from my records that a CT scan that I had 12 years ago for gallbladder showed a fatty liver ....I was never told this ...and so he wanted to do a liver blood test which showed I had Nash ....never heard of it ....he wanted to follow up with a fibroscan which I had to wait 6 months for and the nurse doing it told me my result was 398 and the cut off was 400 .....hadn’t a clue what she was talking about until I got home and googled it . My liver functions have always been normal but from what I’ve read I am dying aren’t I ? Have yet to hear from consultant as scan was only done on Wednesday....please help me I’m so scared 😦

[Monicka]

Hi Maggie! Please, don’t be scared. The situation seems to be the same everywhere be it USA, United Kingdom or Europe. The doctors just don’t regard a fatty liver to be an issue. They either don’t tell you at all and if they do they say it’s nothing. I would advise you ALWAYS to ask for a copy of the medical report whenever you have any tests and read it yourself and try to understand it and if you are not sure look for second opinion.

The score 398 might refer to CAP value which is given in dB/m and might suggest you have fibrosis. But you have to know the kPa score too.

Right now you should do 3 things:

1. Take a deep breath and calm down! There are many people here in the same situation.

2. Start to adopt a liver friendly diet!

3. Contact your doctor and make an appointment ASAP! Discuss the fibroscan a bloodwork results with him so you know exactly what’s your position. Arrange the follow-ups with him. I mean follow-up bloodwork, maybe in 2-3 months?, follow-up fibroscan in about 6 monts? It’s up to him. If you will adopt a strict liver diet you should see improvement over the time and monitoring it will help to keep track if it.

[Mrsmaggie in reply to Monicka]

Thank you for your reply Monika

[nash2 Partner]

Hi Maggie

There is a second number in the FibroScan test called liver stiffness and it is the one you want to know about. It was probably in the teens or twenties and the units are kPa. That relates to the scar tissue and it the thing that can make you sick. From what little you told us about your symptoms I'd say that you are probably not dying soon as you fear but you probably do face a potentially serious condition. Knowledge is your best defense so first find out what that stiffness score was and there is a lot of information about how to interpret that. There is a lot of information on our site if you want to dig into the subject.

fattyliverfoundation.org/

Wayne

[Mrsmaggie in reply to nash2]

Thank you for replying Wayne ....I have spoken to my own doctor today and he is going to try and chase up the results . I initially thought that my symptoms were to do with my stomach as I have gastritis but the gastroenterologist that I was referred to happens to also be a liver doctor and he was the one who ordered the liver blood tests and the fibroscan. A question you may be able to answer for me would a CT scan show the state of my liver and what would the specific blood test that he ordered show ? Thank you in advance .

[nash2 Partner in reply to Mrsmaggie]

Hi Maggie

A CT is not very useful for liver fat or early stage NASH. It is primarily of value for liver cancer though a lot of docs try to use it diagnostically. There are a number of blood tests that he might have ordered so can't really say on that. It would depend on what he thought he was looking at and his personal bias about blood markers. There is considerable debate in the science community at the moment about what the best testing strategy would be. Personally I use LIVERFASt in combination with FibroScan

fattyliverfoundation.org/li...

Wayne

[Mrsmaggie in reply to nash2]

Thank you Wayne , I will update once I have more information re my fibroscan. You’ve all been very kind 😊